But then again, consider. Beet sugar is a highly used sugar in all kinds of sweets. And, even unrefined, I think it’s hard to go wrong with a salad of roasted sliced beets and juicy sweet mandarin oranges. I’ve also done wacky things to great effect with beets before. Is it that much of a stretch to go to ice cream?

Anyway, let’s back up a bit. Il Laboratorio del Gelato is in New York. Not Seattle. So how did that happen? Last weekend, we wrapped up the last vestiges of my birthday (which was back in April) with a trip to NYC for some eating, shopping, and well, more eating. We stayed in the lower eastside, at the Hotel on Rivington, which shoots up through blocks of vintage walk-ups and shops like bolted arugala. The entry way is a sculpted birth canal, which leads to a sleek, modern interior to match the shiny steely blue exterior. Rooms are minimalistic with crazy views if you get one of the upper rooms. Our room had a peak-a-boo view of the Manhattan bridge and a not-so peak-a-boo view of apartments, including from our shower.

The hotel is right across from a place called Economy Candy. It’s like candyland meets one of those old hardware stores. Shelves floor to ceiling with candy piled everywhere. Old classics like pop rocks and candy cigarettes. Fancy new chocolates. 3 feet long Twizzlers. Mints and gum and candy coated ants. I may be joking about that last one, but I’m really not sure. The smell from all the candy was pretty overwhelming, and the line was pretty long… so we moved on.

Since we arrived on Friday early evening, we kept it pretty simple. Dinner at Lupa, one of our favorites, with hand-made pasta followed by a couple of fantastic desserts… the tartufo (a huge chocolate covered ice cream ball with espresso poured over the top) for him and a black pepper panna cotta with rhubarb for me. It’s not the panna cotta everyone would want, but it was fantastic… strong black pepper with perfect creamy finish.

We spent the better part of Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn wandering our way down Bedford after a fantastic brunch at Bonita of huevos (with bacon!) for me and chiliquiles for Cam. We were on vacation, so sangria at 11 seemed like a good idea.

Then it was wandering the streets and people watching and enjoying the spring weather, until beer-o-clock.

Saturday night, after a trip back to the Lower East Side wtih beers and yummy herby popcorn down the block from the hotel at Spitzer’s Corner, we hopped back over the bridge to dinner in Williamsburg where we really loved the casual vibe. We were supposed to eat at Sweetwater that night, but based on a last minute recommendation, we stopped into Aurora, a packed Italian bistro tucked a few blocks away, and ate at the bar. I had one of the best raviolios I’ve ever had… fresh buffalo mozzerella, fava beans covered with razor thin slices of summer truffles. Cam’s wild boar ragu was good, but not quite as appealing to him as the Amatraciana at Lupa the night before.

The next day, after a bit of a lie-in, we got up and walked down the street to Katz’s deli, another of our regular stops when we visit NYC. It’s touristy and completely chaotic, but you can’t argue that their sandwiches are amazing. After lunch, there was more shopping in Soho. It was a gorgeous day of a holiday weekend, so the crowds were insane, but we managed to find a few side streets to wander that were a bit less crazy with some fascinating shops like Shoe which sells beautiful handmade shoes by Cydwoq (sidewalk) and relaxed and had an espresso at Gimme coffee on Mott St.

For dinner, we decided to just wander around to see what we saw. We thought about trying to get a table at WD-50 which was right around the corner from the hotel, but ended up popping into Tapeo 29 for some yummy tapas. I highly recommend the boquerones. The bistec was wonderfully flavorful, but a bit tough. After noshing there for a bit, Cam decided he was still hungry… so of all things, we headed back to Lupa for a little pasta and salad dessert.

The real dessert had come earlier in the day with the stop at Il Laboratorio del Gelato. I’ve written about this place before, but it’s still as good as ever. And, this time, I got a bit more adveturesome in my flavors. I couldn’t resist a taster spoon of the beet gelato. I wasn’t sure what to expect, whether the beet would be subtle almost unidentifiable or not. Turns out, it’s not. It’s fresh and vibrant and packed with earthy beet flavor. I was intrigued, but not ready for a whole bowlful, so I got the olive oil gelato instead. But I almost immediately told Cam that I’d be making some beet ice cream when I got home. I wanted to play with this flavor… the cold beet was good, but I thought it really could use more flavors to fill it out. I started throwing out flavor combinations as we walked around… beet and chocolate chip, beet and cardamom, Meyer lemon beet. I would not be daunted by eye-rolls.

I was a bit daunted though at figuring out how to start. There were sadly no beet ice cream recipes in David’s Perfect Scoop. I thought for sure he’d have done it already. And the only reference I found online was to an article about Il Laboratorio del Gelato. I’d be winging it.

I headed to the market to get my beets, picking up a bunch of golden and a bunch of red. The golden beet flavor I had already figured out… I wanted it to be bright and fresh with orange and honey. For the red beets, I knew I’d be playing with flavors. I dotted a plate with little blobs of beet puree like a painters palette and started tasting. Most of the flavors worked… beet and vanilla was lovely, as was beet and cardamom and beet and cinnamon. Beet and anise, however, was terrible. Finally, I decided on cinnamon with a hint of citrus.

As my beets roasted, I searched through Perfect Scoop to find the closest thing I could… a sweet potato ice cream that I’m also dying to try. The recipe is simple… basically adding the cream to the puree and seasoning, and then freezing. No eggs to bother with, and a bit more control of adding ingredients a bit at a time to find the right balance of sweet to bright to creamy and trying to keep the beet flavor intact, but not quite so aggressive.

One thing to know is that as flavors get cold, they change. Sweet isn’t quite so sweet when frozen. My golden beets started out less sweet than their red cousins, and the beet flavor really shines through kicking the orange and honey out the door. It starts great and has a certain charm, but it is definitely not for everyone.

The crimson beet ice cream with cinnamon and lemon zest is almost otherworldly. The cinnamon jumps up and bites you in the nose as you open the tub. The color is startlingly fuscia. As the cream starts to melt in your mouth, the beet perks up and announces a big hello and how do you do. The earthy flavor lingers (maybe asking for a bit more sugar and lemon zest), but in a pleasant, “well, how about that” kind of way. Even still, it’s not for every palate and even adventuresome mouths may only want small portions.

Beet Ice Cream
(a very rough recipe… you’ll need to adjust based on the flavors of your beets. Just consider this a rough guideline).

Peel and chop the beets, and roast at 375F with a splash of olive oil for an hour or two until the beets are nice and soft. Puree the beets in a blender with a bit of liquid (orange juice works well… but red wine or port would be a nice touch with the red beets too) until very smooth, and then push through a fine sieve. You should end up with quite smooth puree that either looks a lot like ketchup or mustard, depending on your beet color. I was very tempted to forgo the whole ice cream project and just turn them into beet ketchups and mustards!

You’ll end up with a lot of left over pulp. I saved mine and plan on making some beet-stuffed raviolis with it. Three large beets yielded about 1 cup of beet puree for me, with about the same amount of leftover pulp. That turned into enough ice cream for small servings for 4 people.

Let the beet puree cool to room temperature. Add your spices (cinnamon and zest from 1 lemon in my case for the red, the zest of two oranges and a splash of vanilla for my golden) and a healthy pinch of salt. Mix in honey or simple syrup until it seems a bit sweeter than you think it should be. Then, add your cream, a little at a time, stirring to incorporate. Taste it as you go along and adjust your sweetener accordingly. I used about 2 to 1 cream to sweetner ratio, and my ice cream was not too sweet. Then load the mixture up into your ice cream maker. Freeze overnight.

Let the ice cream sit at room temp for about 10 minutes or so before trying to serve it. I don’t know if I got lucky or it has something to do with the texture of the beets, but not only the color of the ice cream was gorgeous, it also scooped like a dream.

But, I’m going to skip over all that and focus on two dishes that absolutely blew me away (I ordered both, btw – I won!). First, the daily house-made pasta. The spaghetti on the menu was high-quality dried pasta, and it’s very very good. But, if you go to Lupa, it’s really a crime not to order the house made pasta. That night’s selection included Orechiette, little ear shaped pastas that act as tiny cups to capture just the right amount of sauce. Orechiette is always one of my favorites, but Lupa’s really took it to a new level. A bit thicker than typical orechiette I’ve had in the past, these little scoops had such a beautiful bite, I can practically still feel the texture. Their thickness was in no way gummy or heavy, just a reminder that they were made by someone’s adept hands rather than spat out by a machine. The sauce was sweet Italian sausage that was spicy and rich without being overwhelming. Fresh and warm essence of fennel in each juicy, meaty bite. I couldn’t imagine the meal getting any better than that. And then, it did. Again, with the daily special, three flash-fried lamb chops that were mind-blowingly delicious. A gorgeous crisp searing kept the meat incredibly moist and tender. Simple perfection.

The only downside to the entire meal was after a pasta and meat (shared amongst the table), we were all quite too full to sample the desserts, which looked equally tasty. I guess another trip to New York is going to be called for soon.

Technorati Tags: Food, New York, Restaurant, Review, Tips, Travel

Then, the desserts. Holy Moly. Save room for the dessert! I had a panna cotta infused with Pomegranate Oolong (an infusion of an infusion!) and Green Tea, which managed to be light and incredibly rich all at the same time. Little pommegranate seeds and berries provided a great contrast to the smooth cream of the panna cotta. But, Cam really won on the dessert choice with the chocolate ganache tart and a scoop of the most incredible gelato on the planet… a simple chocolate mint chip, but wow. A quick chat with the waiter, and we learned that it had come from the Il Laboratorio del Gelato.

One other thing I’ll note about the Goblin Market – we showed up on a Thursday night without reservations, and they were really great about it. Despite the restaurant being almost entirely full (it only seats about 30), they found us a table within a couple of minutes. The space is really small, so that was quite a feat. And, more importantly, I was really impressed at how generally laid back and friendly the staff was. So much of what I read about New York spots are that the food is great, and the service surly. Goblin Market, on the other hand, was Seattle-style friendly.

Goblin Market
199 Prince St (Cross Street: Between Sullivan Street and Macdougal Street)
New York, NY 10012View Map
(212) 375-8275
Directions: C, E at Spring St

Hours
Mon-Wed 12pm-11pm
Thu-Fri 12pm-12am
Sat 11am-12am
Sun 11am-11pm

No website yet, but here are some related links:
City Search Review
NY Magazine Review

Technorati Tags: Dessert, Food, New York, Restaurant, Review

I also learned, yet again, how amazing my husband is. A big cheer goes out to him for beating his time goal for the marathon and still being able to walk to dinner that night and all around the Lower East Side and SoHo the next morning. Just watching the marathon, and rushing around to catch him running by in three different spots was exhausting for me… I can’t imagine running 26.2 miles. Even Lance said it was the most difficult thing he’s ever done physically. It’s truly impressive, and I’m incredibly proud of Cam’s accomplishment (in case you can’t tell!) If you are interested in the run itself, do go check out Cam’s wrap-up.

Another thing I learned is that it’s terribly difficult to get a great latte, especially in midtown. For great coffee, you need to head down to the Village (East or Greenwich) or even over to the Williamsberg area of Brooklyn. However, if you don’t make it there, here are some coffee-finding tips for Manhattan. In Murray Hill, your best best is Oren’s Daily Roast. The coffee is roasted, well, daily and the barista I had knew how to pull it well. I can’t really recommend the lattes there despite this if you are someone who knows coffee. The problem isn’t the coffee… it’s the milk. Big ugly bubbles instead of velvety smooth microfoam covered the top of my latte which was made with milk that was far too hot. In fact, this turned out to be a running theme for my trip. After a bit more research, I headed down to The Blue Spoon in Tribeca, voted one of New York’s best cups. Blue Spoon is a really cute little place, and they do make good coffee made from Intelligentsia beans (always a good sign). I watched the barista get some nice crema, and then watched her steam the milk. Better than Oren’s, but she still lacked the proper technique. (Just so folks understand I’m not throwing stones… getting beautifully steamed milk is challenging. After a year of practicing on my home machine, I still get it right only about 50% of the time.) The resulting latte was very drinkable, but just didn’t quite make it up to Seattle’s indy coffee shop quality. My final attempt was at Orchard 88, a very comfy looking cafe right by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Again, there was nothing wrong with the beans, they just didn’t get the milk quite right. Lesson learned? Either go to Joe’s or 9th Street Espresso, or order an Americano.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me backtrack a bit. We arrived early in New York after taking the Jet Blue red-eye from Seattle, where neither of us got much sleep. Luckily, our room was available, so we got a few hours sleep. Before crashing however, we took a good inventory of the room. Another lesson learned: Avoid Hotels in New York… go for the apartments! Because we had Cam’s parents meeting us and because it was the weekend of the New York City Marathon, all the hotels were both booked and ridiculously priced. Shelling out over $800 per night for two rooms you can hardly turn around in typically seems like par for the course in New York. But this time, we decided to look into short term apartment rentals, and we stumbled upon the Envoy Club. These apartments in Murray Hill are huge by New York Standards, with full kitchens (gas stove) and living areas, are well designed (and very clean), have comfortable beds, and full maid service (they even washed the dishes). Ours had a cool view of 1st Ave and two bedrooms and could sleep 6… all for under $400 per night. If you are heading to New York, this is the way to go. The only thing you miss out on is the hotel bar or restaurant, which you probably don’t want to eat or drink at anyway.

Now, onto the food. Sorry there aren’t many photos this time. I just couldn’t bring myself to drag the big camera out, and I’m hopeless with a point and shoot. (We picked up a bran-spanking new point and shoot camera on this trip, btw… I think it’s going to be a good one, but I didn’t have time to learn how to do all the cool manual stuff so it was pretty useless in dark restaurants.) So, I’m afraid to cover it all, you’ll have to put up with the thousand words. And, since it’s really quite hard to actually read through a thousand words in a single blog post, I’m going to post individual posts for the restaurant details. The rest of this post will just be a wrap-up, and I’ll update it with the links to more info over the next few days.

After awaking groggily from our nap, we headed out to get some supplies for the apartment and something quick to eat. Close by, there is a great little gourmet market called Todaro Brothers which I had found in the Slow Food Guide to New York. This market is tiny, but has an excellent deli with some beautiful cheeses and meats, and some nice bread choices. The prepared foods looked good too, although we didn’t try any. Instead, we stocked up on the meats and cheeses for later, and headed around the corner to Pizza 33 for a slice. Great pizza, pre-cooked and crisped up in a wood fire oven. I won’t say it’s the best in New York, but it beats pretty handily any slice you can get in Seattle.

Dinner that night was at a fairly new little spot in SoHo called Goblin Market. Fantastic meal, and I highly recommend this little gastropub. More on that meal here.

Lunch (I don’t usually eat breakfast) the next day was at the deli we always hit when we are in New York… Katz’s. We avoid “the table” from the movie, and simply indulge in the melt in your mouth corned beef and some greasy and tasty latkes. Cam’s parents, who had just arrived in town from PEI, split (one sandwich is plenty for two people if you have any sides) got the pastrami, after a little nudging from me, and were stuffed. Making my own corned beef is still on my list, but it’s going to be hard to live up to Katz’s example.

Dinner on Friday night was funnily right down the street from Goblin Market, at a french bistro called Raoul’s. Crowded and loud, the food was good and I’d go there again if I had friends that wanted to try it. But, it was probably my least favorite meal of the trip. More on that later.

We pooched lunch on Saturday. After getting out of the apartment later than expected, an incredibly long cab ride across town, a run through the Javits Center to pick up Cam’s marathon schwag, we walked over to Times Square and the theater district for a 2pm matinee. That ended up only leaving about 20 minutes for lunch, and we just picked a random pizza place for a slice. It wasn’t very good, but it tied us over for the play. The play, by the way, was awesome. Nathan Lane staring in a dark comedy, Butley that was dark, vitriolic and incredibly well-acted and very, very funny. Don’t expect to walk away smiling, but do go see it if you have a chance.

After the play, traffic was nuts around the theater district (I guess that’s no surprise, but we hadn’t planned for it), so rather than heading back to the apartment to change for dinner, we had to just head down to Nolita directly. Dinner that night was at Mario Batali’s Lupa, one of his more casual Italian spots. We arrived a bit early, and popped into one of the neighboring pubs, the Peculiar Pub, which was a very cool little dive with bottle cap art adorning the walls, and a choice from hundreds of different beers… I’d recommend the Brooklyn Lager, which they have on tap. Back at Lupa, our table was ready, and we sat down to a fantastic meal, definitely my favorite meal of the trip. I was a bit worried before hand that the Batali restaurants wouldn’t live up to the hype… but I was happily surprised with Lupa. My next trip to NYC will definitely call for a repeat visit, or perhaps a trip to Babbo. More on Lupa soon.

On to Sunday. Sunday was the day of the Marathon. Cam left the apartment around 6:15, and Cam’s parents and I headed out for Brooklyn around 9:45. I had a list of possible cafes to stop in and grab lunch after seeing Cam out our pre-designated cheering zone. I made sure I had several choices in case time didn’t go quite as planned and we either had too much time to kill between “Cam viewings” or not enough. Good thing too, because the subways took a bit longer than I expected and we had quite a bit of walking to do as well. So, lunch on Saturday, despite quite a bit of planning, turned into a quick coffee and pastry at Yura & Co at the corner of 3rd and 93rd. My brioche was quite tasty and flakey, and the scones that Cam’s parents had looked nice as well. But, we were only there for a quick break before heading back to the race, where we just made it in the nick of time… well, 15 minutes before he ran past, which was a bit close for my liking.

Post marathon and a bit of a rest for Cam, we headed up the street to Wolfgang’s steak house. The owner and name-origin is from a former headwaiter at the (in)famous Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn… arguably the best steaks in New York and some have argued the best steaks in the US. We thought about going there, but decided against the trek out to Brooklyn and weren’t too keen on the cash-only policy. Reviews I’d seen of Wolfgangs said that the steaks were 95% as good, they took credit cards and, key for Cam that night, one of the two locations was only 5 blocks away. It was a great choice. Our waiter was a character, and the food was delicious. Huge, but delicious. More on that later, but the short story is that if you are looking for a great steak in New York, you won’t be disappointed with Wolfgang’s porterhouse for two.

Cam’s parents headed home on Monday morning, and Cam and I went out walking, and to try to hit a few places on my food list. After grabbing a coffee at Blue Spoon, we walked up through Chinatown and after checking out several restaurants, decided on New Green Bo and proceeded to order WAY too much food. The steamed pork dumplings were amazing, and would have been more than enough for the two of us for lunch. More on New Green Bo soon.

A bit more walk was needed after the filling lunch so we could eat more, and we headed up to the area around the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in search of some gelato and pastries. I was hoping to stop into Babycakes, since I had heard so much about these yummy vegan treats, but sadly, they were closed. Happily, though, I stumbled on a cool home store on the corner called Home Economics. Loads of cool tableware and other funky (photo worthy) home stuff. I just picked up a few inexpensive pieces of silver plated flatware, but I could have gone nuts. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t see the little cart they had outside full of vintage pie tins in great condition until I had already bought the flatware.

Just around the corner from there sits Il Laboratorio del Gelato, the much hyped gelato store that serves many of the restaurants in New York. Their retail shop is tiny, and we were both disappointed to see that they didn’t have any of the mint chocolate chip available in cones, as we had fallen in love with it at Goblin Market earlier in the trip. But, I was very happy with my huge scoop of dark chocolate cinnamon, which tasted like the best mexican hot cocoa, and Cam had no problem polishing off his combination of a scoop of chocolate hazelnut and a scoop of espresso. Next time, we have to go there first and pick up an 18oz container to take back to the apartment. It’s definitely worth a trip to pick some up.

With about an hour to kill before we needed to head out to the airport, we decided to stop in for a beer back at the Peculiar Pub in Nolita. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we walked up the block to the Back Fence, a peanut shell and sawdust on the floor kind of place. They had just opened (it was about 4), and we were the only folks in the bar for a while. It was a very funny spot. They have live music at night, which looks like it would be pretty good, but at that time of the day, the TV is on and and blasting the History Channel, so we learned all about Ramses the Second and then about Nefertiti while we had our beers and nibbled on salted peanuts that the bar tender gave us calling them “American Sushi” (I think it should have been American Edamame…). As we were sitting there, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see just about the cutest little field mouse scurrying along under the tables. I guess that’s not the best thing in the world for a bar, but somehow it seemed to fit the place’s barnyard feel.

And with that, we headed out to the airport for the long flight home. A big cheers to you if you actually made it this far! You must really be interested in New York Restaurants!

Technorati Tags: espresso, Food, New York, Restaurant, Review, Tips, Travel

Then, after a short respite at home, we’ll be heading to London to visit our friends who just moved there. They live right by Portobello Road, so the market there will be a must, and I’m sure they will have plenty of places lined up for us too… but we’ll be there over a week, so I’d love to get some other recommendations… bakeries, cheese shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs, you name it.

Technorati Tags: Food, Restaurant, Trivia

The first was Empanada Mama, located in Hell’s Kitchen (763 9th Ave). There are a ton of great restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen in Midtown… Mee Noodles, Rice and Beans to name a few. There’s also a great little gourmet grocery store called the Amish Market, that was, as far as I could tell, in no way Amish. They served sushi! They have a website! As beautiful of a market as it was, there is just something wrong with that. But, I digress in a big way. I was supposed to be talking about street food.

Back to Empanada Mama. This little hallway of a restaurant is decorated in bright reds and greens, and has more empanada choices than you can possibly imagine. You pick the dough type (corn or wheat) and the filling, and in just about 5 minutes, you get piping hot, crisp and tender empanadas. Other choices are salads and soups, and even a veal and rice ball tapa… but I stuck with the empanadas, picking one chicken with corn flour and one wheat flour with spinach and cheese. Little bag of goodness in hand, I walked down the block to a little park, and sat in the sun for my first bite. The corn was nutty and crisp and packed with juicy shredded chicken and perfect dipped into the little cup of salsa verde. The spinach and cheese was less amazing… the spinach tasted like it had been frozen… I wouldn’t order it again. That said, with some of the salsa fresca, it was still pretty yummy.

Next on the list is the little falafel stand at the corner of 5th Ave and 45th St, Kwik Meal. Now, this isn’t just any ordinary falafel stand. It’s probably one of the most reviewed stands in NYC. It’s been written up in Gourmet magazine, and is owned by one of the former chefs of the Russian Tea room. The big deal at this cart (and the original one on 6th and 45th) is the lamb. However, I didn’t have the lamb. I had the falafel… and all I can say is that I enjoyed the falafel so much, I can’t believe how good the lamb must be. Can falafel be epic? I really didn’t think so before, but this was so spicy (fresh jalapeno hot sauce) and creamy (yogurt sauce) and moist that I’m finding myself drooling again just thinking about it. Take the extra time to walk down to 45th if you find yourself in Times Square, and wait in line… it’s worth it.

My final great street food find was a little Mexican kitchen and burrito shop in Chelsea called Kitchen Market (218 Eight Ave at 21 St). While not really street food (ie, it’s a nice little shop, not a cart), it’s a take and go kind of place, and I ate my burrito on a bench in Washington Square, so I’m calling it close enough. I actually popped into the store because of the cool window displays, not realizing they served food. Little dioramas of skeletons in wedding clothes and other funky art work were precariously perched in the window.

I thought I’d just walk in and browse, but the moment I walked in and smelled all of the herbs and cooking meats, I knew I was eating again. The menu consists of a few different burrito styles: San Francisco (pinto beans, rice, onion, cilantro, and hot sauce) and Los Angeles (salsa fresca) with a crazy number of fillings including things like cactus and vegetable stew, green chile pasole, roasted eggplant with queso, black forest ham and provolone, BLT, Barley and corn salad… plus all the usuals. I was completely overwhelmed by how good everything looked, and ended up going simple and getting a breakfast burrito with turkey chorizo and hot sauce. It was heavenly. It’s been ages since I’d had a good breakfast burrito, and this one was fantastic. Crammed full of eggs and sasuage, green chile and fresh cilantro, moist and spicy and not greasy. Yum! Without a doubt, this little spot will be on my must visit list on my next trip to New York.

Technorati Tags: Food, New York, Photography, Restaurant, Review, Tips

The first stop, Buttercup Bake Shop (2nd Ave between 51st and 52nd St) was what started it all. I’m pretty sure it was the perfectly designed icon on their pale yellowy sign and that sucked me in. This was a place that looked like it had some style, and style is one of the key ingredients for a great cupcake. After yielding my turn in line while I picked between 101 flavors (ok, maybe it was more like 6), I decided on the Devil Dog, devil’s food with white meranguey frosting. This should have been a great cupcake. It certainly looked beautiful, the bakery was packed and they had several decent reviews.

Unfortunately, the cupcake I tried, both the cake itself and the firm frosting were dry, dry, dry. Ack. I almost spit it out it was that dry. I was not at all satisfied with my cupcake experience, and I knew that I could do better. I moved on.

The next cupcake was from Tonnie’s in the Village (120 West 3rd St). Tonnie’s is a tiny closet of a shop that features basically two foods: cupcakes and philly cheese steak sandwiches. Cupcake choices were limited, but they had chocolate and chocolate which looked moist and was well, if not glamorously, frosted.

This cupcake was miles above the Buttercup Bakery, but still not the cupcake-gasm that I was looking for. The frosting was creamy and the cake pretty moist, but I’ve made better at home. I think next time, I’ll get the cheese steak. Moving on.

My next stop was at Joe’s (at Gay St and Waverly Place, in the Village), which reportedly is the one place to get Amy Sedaris cupcakes. Sadly for me, they were out by the time I got there. However, that didn’t stop me from having a beautiful latte… ah, a taste of home.

But, I still needed to find the perfect cupcake!

To call Casa Cupcake Cafe (at 40th and 9th Ave) a hole in the wall might be rather generous. It’s kind of a dump. But, it’s a nice homey and comfortable dump, with lots of (rickety) seating. And, it offers the closest thing to a decent cup of coffee that I’ve found in Midtown. I actually stopped into two other coffee shops, including Empire Coffee and Tea, within 15 minutes of stumbling on Casa Cupcake, ordered a latte, walked out side and tossed them in the next trash can that I passed, they were that bad. Casa Cupcake’s espresso is not award winning. But, it also isn’t bitter or sour, and they do manage to pour a little bit of latte art. And of course, I also tried a cupcake (not cheap! The small latte and cupcake cost me $6 + tip)… again chocolate with white frosting. These had elegant little flowers perched on top in bright contrasting colors. How could I resist?

And in fact, it was the frosting saved the cake. The cake itself was pretty dry, but the butter cream frosting was so incredibly smooth and satiny that I found myself smiling with each lick. This was something different. This I couldn’t do at home. And while most of the cake remained on the plate, the icing was completely gone. And after polishing off my latte, I moved on… this time almost right across the street in hopes of finding the ultimate cupcake mecca.

The Cupcake Cafe (On the corner of 9th Ave and 39th street) is the one cupcake bakery that I had read about prior to my search. It’s in the guide book I’m using, had been reviewed in a big New York Times article on cupcake spots in the past year, and they even have their own cookbook.

“Cupcake Cafe Cookbook” (Ann Warren, Joan Lilly)

Cupcake Cafe isn’t quite the dump of Casa Cupcake, but it would still make Martha Stewart squeamish. Once again, I picked out a chocolate with white frosting, and the gentleman behind the counter picked out one with lovely pink buttercream flowers, and bagged it up for me. I left the shop, looking for a place to sit and after a few blocks, realized that those are few and far between in NYC. I ended up in Washington Square, about a mile or so away from the bakery before I found a nice place to sit in the sun to indulge. I was convinced that the gorgeous icing would know be completely lining the bag, but amazingly, it was practically undisturbed. One bite told me why. While the buttercream at Casa Cupcake was perfectly smooth, it was also incredibly soft. Cupcake Cafe’s icing, however, was just as smooth, but quite firm, enough to even provide just the slightest resistance in each bite. The cake was rich, but not overpowering… and while it was still a little dry for my tastes, that didn’t stop me from quickly gobbling it down. Yum.

Of course, now, I feel compelled to take a trip down to the Bay Area to continue my search for the perfect cupcake. At least there, I know I’ll be able to get a great cup of coffee.

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